Andre Marin

Tuesday March 3, 2015

Tuesday March 3, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 3, 2015

Shovegate commemoration as a possible city beautification plan

Sanctions or no sanctions, Sam Merulla wants city council to rescind fellow councillor Lloyd Ferguson’s appointment to the Hamilton Police Services Board.

Merulla issued a notice of motion Sunday, seeking a second opinion on a report released last week by the city’s integrity commissioner, Earl Basse, into a pushing incident involving Ferguson at City Hall last year.

In the report, Basse determined Ferguson had violated council’s code of conduct when he pushed independent journalist Joey Coleman.

Merulla calls it “outrageous” that the integrity commissioner didn’t recommend sanctions against Ferguson.

He’d also like a “third party police service such as the Ontario Provincial Police” to investigate the matter.

In the meantime, he’d like to see Ferguson — who is chair of the police board — step down as chair of the board.

“Anyone that admits assault I don’t think is deserving of being on the police board,” Merulla said Sunday, referring to Ferguson’s apology the day after the incident.

But Ferguson — who represents Ancaster — says it was not assault and he did not admit to any assault. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Meanwhile, the plaza at the entrance to Jackson Square was reimagined by a group of digital designers participating in the first Embrace UX conference in Hamilton on the weekend.

UX stands for user experience and the sold-out conference drew more than 110 participants from near and wide to talk about how to better connect products and services with those using them.

Groups of designers spent hours at the Pearl Company on Sunday pondering the important piece of real estate at the corner of King and James. They were told they had to incorporate the large concrete pillar that once held the Birk’s Clock but now stands forlornly at the base of the stairs to the underused rooftop patio on top of the mall.

Jackson Square leasing manager Jocelyne Mainville talked to the groups about the existing use of the plaza and aspirations for the entrance to the mall.

“They all zeroed in on the same problem, which is that this is a high-profile intersection but the mall entrance is so understated as to be invisible,” said workshop leader Ryan McGreal, editor of Raise the Hammer.

“Then there is a staircase that goes to a place you can’t see, which is intimidating.”

Suggestions included adding a canopy or archway that would define the entry. One group suggested the concrete pillar could become a water feature. Another suggested it should be an interactive way-finding tool that could provide maps or restaurant information.

Another group recommended the pole be programmable so would activate lights and music as pedestrians travelled the staircase. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday July 17, 2013

Wednesday July 17, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 17, 2013

Ombudsman criticizes Ontario government for unfulfilled promises

Patients in Ontario are safer taking a taxi to the hospital than risking their lives in an unregulated “beater” transfer ambulance, says ombudsman André Marin.

“Our investigators have uncovered serious problems with maintenance, staff training, and infection control with these vehicles, which transport hundreds of thousands of Ontarians every year,” Marin said Tuesday.

In his 2012-13 annual report, the provincial watchdog urged the government to take charge of a number of issues, including regulating the non-emergency medical transfer industry before it is too late.

“This is a case where the where the wheels are literally falling off the bus. Some of these vehicles’ parts are flying off them, we have patients falling off gurneys. It’s a question of time before there is a major catastrophe and then we will look back and say, ‘Why did the government not act?’ ” he told a Queen’s Park news conference.

The ombudsman said the coroner has been calling for regulating the non-emergency medical transfer industry since 1995, but Health Minister Deb Matthews told the Star she is still working on it.

“You are safer to take a taxi from your home to the hospital than to take one of these vehicles that are often beaters — they are ambulances that are turned into beaters — and you hire them at greater cost just to ferry you. Just because the 19-year-old drivers have uniforms and they drive cars that look like ambulances you think that it is official and you are safe and you are not,” Marin said. (Source: The Toronto Star)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, December 9, 2010

McGuinty admits security law kept Ontarians in the dark

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says his government acted too quickly and kept the public in the dark when it handed police special powers that violated people’s civil liberties during last summer’s G20 summit.

He made the admission a day after the province’s Ombudsman said the now infamous secret measure, made at the direct request of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, was “likely illegal” and never should have been enacted.

“This was an extraordinary regulation and it deserved more transparency and more debate,” Mr. McGuinty conceded to reporters on Wednesday.

But his comments did little to end the controversy at the provincial legislature, where opposition members called for the resignation of Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley. It was Mr. Bradley’s predecessor, Rick Bartolucci, who was harshly criticized in the Ombudsman’s report for plotting to keep the measure under wraps last June. But Mr. Bartolucci was moved to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing two months later as part of a cabinet shuffle.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak accused the Premier of exercising “extraordinary poor judgment” in enacting powers normally reserved for times of war and for “conspiring” to keep them secret.

“This was not a simple error,” Mr. Hudak said during Question Period on Wednesday. “It was not a simple mistake. The Ombudsman said this was a premeditated plan to keep the general public in the dark.” (Globe & Mail)